Gluten Free Vegan Blueberry Muffins

Here’s a token muffin recipe for you guys. It means I baked. And not just once, I baked these a few times to get it just right. Consider yourself lucky because you probably can tell by now that I’m not too keen on baking sweet goodies. It’s been drilled into me that every true foodie/baker/cook/chef tastes what they create – and I agree, it’s essential. When it comes to sweets, I hate tasting what I create. Because once I get a taste for the sweet stuff it’s down a slippery slope of sweet tasting treats from that point on. Do you ever have that problem? Please say yes.

They say ‘everything in moderation’ and I agree with whoever *they* may be. Except the moderation part is a challenge in our household. Part of me is secretly happy Levi lacks self-control with baked goodies. I try my one sample to make sure it tastes suitable to share and then Levi can have at it and polish off the rest and take away all temptation from me.

These muffins only contain 1/2 cup of coconut sugar. For a baked treat, that’s pretty decent. There’s sweetness that comes from the blueberries, of course, but that’s allowed I think.

I’ve only made these muffins using fresh blueberries. I suppose you could use frozen blueberries as long as you don’t let them thaw before folding them in, otherwise you’ll probably end up with weird bluish-purple muffins. I used one full cup of fresh blueberries. If you don’t have that much you could probably get away with doing slightly less than a full cup – even a half cup would probably work. I just like lots of fruit in my stuff.

Since I used coconut sugar in my muffins they came out caramel colored. If color is a big concern for you then use a sweetener that is white – like granulated sugar or organic cane sugar. The same amount should work.

Baking Tip: Tired of your gluten-free and vegan muffins and cupcakes sticking to the cupcake paper? I thought I’d try greasing the papers to see if it helped with easy removal once baked. I did a quick Google search and apparently professional bakers do something along those lines all the time. Not sure if that’s true or not. In any case, I tried it with baking these muffins and wow does it work. Just put your cupcake papers in the muffin tin and then give each one a light spray of olive oil cooking spray.

I cannot wait to make these! I totally know what you mean about the slippery slope. I’ve been known to eat a little TOO much dough and then I start wanting more and more sweet treats. =( That might be why I have a few more pounds on me these days. They were delicious adding onto my frame, I guess… =S Would it be alright to use tapioca flour instead of tapioca starch, or are these secretly interchangeable terms? Thank you for the help and the lovely recipe!

Hi Rebecca, Tapioca flour and tapioca starch are really the same thing by two different names. The only one you have to watch for is potato starch and potato flour as those are two very different things in baking. I hope you enjoy these!

My birthday is Wednesday, and I want to make blackberry muffins from scratch. This is the best recipe I’ve found so far for a gluten free vegan muffin. I’m going to replace the blueberries with blackberries because Im craving warm blackberries, I hope it comes out just as good as your pics look. Other recipes used pre made mixes, or other foreign ingredients, or the muffins didnt look wholesome enough for me. These look really good. Thanks! 🙂

Thank you, thank you for this recipe! It is wonderful to find a recipe I don’t need to modify too much for my daughters various allergies/intolerances. She was so excited to have a treat she can eat, and absolutely loves the muffins! I replaced the blueberries with chopped apple (as she’s also allergic to blueberries) and they turned out great. I didn’t have sorghum flour, used a mix of rice, besan and tapioca instead, will try it next time with the sorghum, think I need a bulk order as we’ll be making these a lot!

Thank you so much for the recipe! I just finished baking them and couldn’t help but try them right away – delish! I had to substitute oat flour for the sorghum (it’s hard to find specialty foods around where I live), but they still came out great. I also sprinkled a little maple syrup on top before I put them into the oven, which made them a touch sweeter – I have a huge sweet tooth haha 🙂

Thank you for sharing your recipe. I love the fact that it is egg free as I’m allergic to so many things, including baking powder! So I used your recipe as a “jumping off” point to make it allergy friendly for me. Instead of baking powder, I used 1 t. soda and 1/2 teaspoon ascorbic acid, and it worked perfectly. Given soda is much stronger than baking powder, is also omitted the 1/4 teaspoon in the applesauce. Since I cannot have coconut oil, I used 1/3 c. avocado oil instead and that also worked well. Despite my changes, the muffins turned out just like your photo! Thank you so much!